What is the first rule about Fight Club? Say it with me, we don’t talk about fight club. This has been the golden rule in Hockey, NASCAR, and Baseball for years. These “rules’ have been in place since the beginning of their existence. Certain hockey players are placed on the roster just to be the “goons” or enforcers for their teammates. If there is a wreck on the racetrack, then someone is going to have to answer for it. Pitchers always have an issue with the time it takes a batter to round the bases after a home-run. All these sports believe that intimidation through fighting is a necessary way to enforce the game. But what about the sports that don’t allow fights, that have regulations on brawls breaking out?
Second rule of fight club, WE DON’T TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB. The commissioners of both basketball and football have placed rules and policies in order to have as little fighting as possible, from penalties on the field to suspensions, see the Malice at the Palace for example. Players seem to use different tacks in order to have toughness in these sports. Sometime it means just taking a technical foul to spark the team, or actually making a big play to cause the team to punt the ball. So this leaves and interesting question. Who’s in, and who’s out?
Why is it that there are sports in America that have borderline encouraged an boxing like atmosphere in their leagues, while others have a kindergarten mindset of “keep our hands to ourselves”.
Lets look at some possible factors. Money: According to articles from Fox Sports and ESPN, the NFL generates the most money and also is the most popular among American sport. Baseball is second followed by Basketball and Hockey, so is it just a matter money, and fighting has a relationship with lower profits? Culture: there is a mindset in hockey and Nascar that certain actions won’t be tolerated in the field of play? The problem with this theory is that the NBA had fighting all throughout the 80’s-90’s. Once the fighting really stopped is when the game got better. Race: Football and Basketball are clearly dominated by African-American players, while Nascar and Hockey have an extremely low African American involvement in comparison. Baseball has had it’s lowest amount of black players on their teams in recent years. The problem with this theory is that black players do not affect fights in sports, all races of players do fight.
The answer seems to be that there is a clear yet unspoken line between who is in and who is out of the club, but is that good for business? The rules show that sports such as hockey and baseball are following suit to try and limit the amount of fights in their games. If Nascar wants to follow the trend, it might actually put a lock on the club all together
